Mandatory Fun

In this episode of the Mandatory Fun podcast, Blake, Tim, and Chase speak with stand-up Mitch Burrow about what simple luxuries we wished we had while on deployment.

Mitch is a Marine Corps veteran that served in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. He then started a career in manufacturing before realizing that it sucked. Now, Mitch has found his true calling in acting silly on a stage in front of strangers on a nightly basis.

Being forward deployed without the amenities that service members are used to from back home can suck. While some military branches have chow halls with an all-you-can-eat menu, others are forced to eat highly-processed foods from heavy duty plastic bags — a.k.a. MREs.

Although we wish for the most part that life would be the same while deployed, it's the simple things in life service members miss the most.

So what unique and simple amenity would Marine veteran and stand-up comedian Mitch Burrow liked to have had while deployed? His answer was simple.

"A data plan." — Mitch

To follow Mitch or check out one of his shows visit his website: Mitchburrow.com.

In this episode of the Mandatory Fun podcast, Blake, Tim, and O.V. speak with Mitch Burrow, a funny burly-guy who went from being a Marine to becoming a stand-up comedian.

When we join the military all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, we have sort of an idea of what we want to do with our lives — but we change our minds dozens of times before landing a career that we hopefully love.

Mitch is a Marine Corps Veteran that served in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. He then started a career in manufacturing before realizing that it sucked. Now, Mitch has found his true calling in acting silly on a stage in front of strangers on a nightly basis.

So why did Mitch decide to jump on stage and be a comedian after getting out of the Marines?

"I love stand up comedy, so I was like you know what? If this is working at a party or a social group, let me try it on stage," Mitch humorously recalls. "So I drove down to San Diego to the comedy store in La Jolla and had three shots of tequila, and I drank a couple of Budweisers then I got on stage. I've been told it went pretty good."

In this episode of the Mandatory Fun podcast, Blake, Shannon, Tim, and O.V. discuss the interesting process of how Air Force officers receive their callsigns.

In the military, callsigns are considered much more than just a name, rather a perfect representation of the airmen's personality.

The Air Force holds "naming nights" for young pilots where their fellow service members put potential callsigns on a wall that relate to a specific story. Then on the night of the naming ceremony, the pilot being "named" sits in front of everyone as they come up one-by-one and explain the story behind their purposed callsign.

"It's kind of like a roasting," Air Force veteran Shannon Corbeil humorously explains. "This is where you get to make fun of your friends."

Although the other branches use callsigns, they don't typically go as far as having a roasting ceremony to narrow down the potential names.

In this episode of the Mandatory Fun podcast, Blake, Chase, Tim, and O.V. discuss what role we'd like to serve in during any war.

Many veterans today are so intrigued by military history, they've considered what war they feel like they missed out on. Although when (hypothetically) given the opportunity to change from their real life MOS to whatever occupation they wanted, the podcast crew surprisingly decided to stick to their original area of expertise.

"I would still select the Navy, and it would be during World War II on a battleship like the USS Iowa," O.V. proudly stated.

As it turns out, everyone reverted to what he knows best. Blake, a combat camera veteran with the Air Force, chose to be a combat cameraman but also opted to serve during World War II.

"If I were going to go back and be a combat cameraman, I would want to land at D-Day," Stilwell said. "I wouldn't mind dying as long as my footage got back that's the whole point.

We did not join the military for the fabulous pay. If pay were the only motivator, we'd all go somewhere else.

Most vets will have you believe that he or she joined because it's their patriotic duty. While that may be part of the reason, Blake Stilwell's alcohol fueled honest answer sums it up for a lot of the troops:

"At 18, and with my only experience being a sea food cook, I don't know where I was going to go," Stilwell said. "It was either the Air Force or 'Deadliest Catch.'" Referring to the popular Discovery show about king crab fishing off the coast of Alaska.

There's more to the salary we make in the military; there are tons of advertised benefits. From cash bonuses to the G.I. Bill, the military takes care of its own. And then there are the little-known advantages of service life — the perks.

In this episode of the Mandatory Fun podcast, Blake, Chase, Tim, and O.V. discuss their favorite perks of service life.

Dale Dye wants to make the "air version" of Saving Private Ryan, and he wants to film it with as many military veterans as possible. "If you think of the first 18 minutes or so of Saving Private Ryan," Dye said. "This will be that but airborne. This will be guys coming out of those aircraft and sky full of tracers." Dye wrote the script for "No Better Place to Die" from a story he'd studied during his active duty days. He felt the story perfectly exemplifies what Americans troops can do when they come together after everything goes wrong. It's about the 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers during the D-Day invasion and their contribution to winning the war. If it weren't for these troops, the German's may have pushed the allied beach invasion back out to sea, according to Dye. While the filmmaking world knows him as Hollywood's drill sergeant, Dye has reserved the director's seat for himself. "Given what I've done in my 30-year career the only way this going to get done right, the only way this is going to blow people right out of their seats is if I direct it because I know how," Dye said. "I know how to do this cool." As for hiring veterans, Dye is looking to fill on and off camera roles to make a filmmaking statement. "My absolute promise is that I'm going to make this movie with as many veterans in front of the camera and behind the camera as I can find, Dye said. "That's the way I'm going to do it. I'm hoping that it will serve as a showcase to Hollywood. It will show them the talent that's out there and what these folks can do. What they bring to the table and how motivated they can be, and I want to demonstrate that."

Historically, the military has relied on clearly defined bounds of acceptable interaction between the officer and enlisted ranks to maintain good order and discipline.

It is a long-standing custom that dates back hundreds of years and has proven itself effective time after time. But not everyone feels it's custom worth holding on to.

"I think there should not be a difference between officer and enlisted ranks," said former Air Force officer Shannon Corbeil. "I believe we should all reach rank based on experience and accomplishment."

On the other hand, Chase Millsap — another former officer — believes the military should maintain its coarse because officers bring a higher lever of maturity only accomplish through higher learning and training.

However, Blake Stillwell and Tim Kirkpatrick — two former enlistees — argue that the stupid partying and immatureness is what officers experienced during college.

In this episode of the Mandatory Fun podcast, two former officers and enlistees confess the best and worst about dealing with each other while in active service.

Green on blue attacks — attacks by Afghan soldiers on Coalition forces — are one of the many dangers our troops in the Middle East face every day.

These deadly morale-sapping attacks are difficult to predict and leave lasting negative trust issues between the locals and American forces. As many as 91 incidents resulted in 148 Coalition troops killed and as many 186 wounded between 2008 and 2015.

In this episode of the Mandatory Fun podcast, Marine infantry officer turned Army Green Beret Chase Millsap, and our Navy corpsman smartass Tim Kirkpatrick share their experiences working with the locals. Millsap with the Iraqi Police and Kirkpatrick with the Afghan National Army. As you'll listen, their experiences differ.

Grunt officers get a bad wrap when they arrive to their first unit. Like any newbie, "Butter Bars" — military slang for 2nd Lieutenants — have to earn the respect of their men despite their rank.

Related: These legendary military officers were brilliant (and certainly crazy)

But it doesn't stop there, there's added pressure from the other officers higher in the chain. When Chase Millsap a veteran officer of both the Army and Marine Corps infantry got to his first unit, he received a warning call from the other Os. "There wasn't even like a welcome to the unit," said Millsap. "It was like 'you are a liability, you are going to screw this up for the rest of us. If you think you have a question, don't ask it.'" It was a well timed warning and every new officer needs that grounding phone call. There's a tremendous amount of pressure coming out of the infantry officers course and these guys are ready to fight — "they are gung-ho," according to Millsap. In this episode of the Mandatory Fun podcast Tim and I ask Millsap everything we ever wanted to know about Grunt officers. Here are 10 questions we asked:

1. How do you get into the Naval Academy?
2. What are some popular tattoos with grunt officers?
3. What kinds of nicknames do officers give each other?
4. Do officers mess with new officers?
5. How did you know when you earned the respect from the men you lead?
6. Do officers make stupid purchases after deployment?
7. What is it with officers and safety briefs?
8. Do officers get extra attention from the enlisted troops at the base gate?
9. Do officer rely on the intelligence of the Lance Corporal Underground — the E4 Mafia?
10. What's the Lieutenant Protection Association (LPA)?

Rivalries are nothing but tough brotherly love between military service branches. Sure, we give each other a hard time but put us on any mission together, and we become an unstoppable force. Army medics and Navy corpsmen are a perfect example of service branch cooperation. When they work together, they save lives. For this episode of the Mandatory Fun podcast, we invited former Army medic Ruty Rutenberg to chat with our resident corpsman about deployment responsibilities. Tune in to learn the differences between their jobs on the field and in garrison. Disclaimer: Let's be honest — we only work so well together because we're secretly trying to outdo the other side.